I really like challenges. So when a friend of mine suggested we do a 2222 push-ups challenge, I did not waste a second and got to work. Watch the episode to find out why I think challenges can improve your life a lot.
Video Transcript
Another 100 push-ups and that brings the total to 2,000.
It’s another beautiful morning. Yesterday was the last cheat day so today it’s time to get back and be serious about workouts and a good diet.
To start with that, a friend of mine challenged me to do 2222 push-ups. Today he’s going to do the same in his time zone. I get a head start because I’m in Asia. I have about 20 minutes until my first call and I’m going to use those for some push-ups.
2122 to go.
It’s gonna be a long but beautiful day.
Doing pull-ups without a pull-up bar
First 222 push-ups done. Now I’m getting ready for a call with Craig Primack who’s a doctor in Arizona. He was recommended by a mutual friend to talk to when I asked about jet lag and other ways to become superhuman while traveling. I’m just going to call him on Zoom now.
Cédric: If you have a tip, one thing that I’d be looking for is how to do pull-ups in locations where I don’t have a pull-up bar.
Craig: There is a device that’s much like the tubes you have. It comes in this little bag. You can see Black Mountain products. About two hands big but it squishes down. You take this end and you either can put it in a doorway or you can attach it around, say, the leg of a sturdy chair or something like that. I did bench press basically, curls tricep, flies, lats…
As far as jet lag, traditionally melatonin is the one that people use. There is a formulation of melatonin that’s time-release. Here in the States, you can only get it at one of the local stores and Amazon.
Call summary and key takeaways
Craig from Arizona. He’s also an EO member and he had super, super valuable insights on the ketogenic diet and melatonin and so on and so forth. So here are the experiments that I’m going to do:
1. Using melatonin to tackle jet lag
Number one, I’m going to try and use melatonin. So when I get back to Europe, I’m going to use melatonin the first few nights and I’ll see if that fixes my jet lag.
Also going to see if I can get some magnesium. That was suggested by several people as well and see if the magnesium helps me sleep.
Craig also mentioned that there is melatonin that has a time-release function built in. So it helps you sleep throughout the night. It’s not just one dosage at the beginning when you take the tablet but it releases over time.
2. The best exercise is the one you follow
In terms of exercises, what I’ve heard is the best exercise is one that you follow or that you do. The best workout routine is one that you follow. My goal is building up muscles, then push-ups and squats and pull-ups and all of this stuff that I’m currently doing can work great.
3. The ketogenic diet
His thoughts on ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting were that generally, both seem to have good health benefits. He thinks that sticking to a ketogenic diet overall is a lot more important than the intermittent fasting. So what I’m going to do is make that my first priority – to be purely ketogenic.
To reach your goal, make it measurable
If you want to reach any goal you need to make the goal measurable and measure the progress. So for me, that means you need to be able to track my weight. This scale is actually one of the 64 things. Pretty compact and that allows me to every day get my measurement. Because I feel it’s quite rewarding to see your progress.
82.1 kilograms right now.
This is before I’ve eaten anything today. I think ideally I want to get down to somewhere between 74 to 76. I’ll take my time but I think the important part now is to really stick to my exercises and then really watch my diet.
Another 15 minutes passed and another 252 push-ups done. I’m getting close to 25 percent of what I have to do. It’s going to be tough. I’m doing 100 push-ups every 15 minutes or so. So that gets me to about 400 per hour. I’m at 1324 calories burned.
Yeah, so on to the next 1222.
I’m at 1,200 – 1,300.
You can really get me to do anything if you formulate it as a challenge.
My muscles are starting to be pretty sore and it’s getting harder to do the 100 every 15 minutes.
Roughly 1,500 push-ups and it’s starting to get tough. My muscles are definitely sore.
So I haven’t eaten yet today and I plan not to eat until dinner. It’s also a bit of an energy problem. I think Lukas who got me into this push-ups challenge is just about to get up. At least psychologically it’s nice to be the one that got up earlier. And it’s a bit of a hack. But I also need to be done within the next two hours because that is when Jordan and I went out to do something more fun.
100 pushups every 15 minutes are going to take another roughly two hours so I don’t have a lot of leeway or buffer.
That was not the most elegant way to finish a set of 40.
I think my body is just asking for a lot of carbs right now.
I just made it to 1800.
Exactly one hour and 30 minutes that I’ve spent doing push-ups so far.
Update from Lukas
Seems that Lukas is up now and let’s see which other updates he has.
Lukas: Alright, time for a quick update.
I just completed six hundred push-ups. The first 500-600 felt like a good warm-up and now I’m starting to feel like a workout.
I get asked why I do this. I like doing things that 1) take me out of my comfort zone; and 2) bring me to another level or get me to do new stuff.
Cédric: Another 100 pushups and that brings the total to 2000.
222 to go, half an hour left but I’m going to take a break now. And then I’m going to attempt to do the last 222 in one session. But I’ll take a 15-minute rest now.
I had a cold shower. 20 minutes left and I have 222 left to do so that’s what I’m going to work on right now!
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